One of my favorite end scenes dealing with dialogue from the movie "Before Sunset.: Two people meet after being apart for 9 years. The whole movie leads up to this one scene where the guy has to figure out if he gets on the plane and goes back to his wife, or stays in Paris one more day with the girl that "got away."
There are so many subtle things in this piece. What they say is both in their body language and in what they say. We never see them acknowledge their love for each other. We never get a definitive "I am going to stay with you." He twirls his ring finger before responding to her and smiling and we're never quite sure if he does stay or if he does go. The dialogue works in concert with the action in order to show conflict between the protagonist (which is usually you in a memoir) and antagonist (which can be nature or yourself, but for the purposes of this assignment, it should be someone specific).
Writing Dialogue
Write each person's spoken words, however brief, as a separate paragraph. Use commas to set off dialogue tags such as "she said" or "he explained." If one person's speech goes on for more than one paragraph, use quotation marks to open the dialogue at the beginning of each paragraph. However, do not use closing quotation marks until the end of the final paragraph where that character is speaking.
When people speak, it's called dialogue.
"I don't feel well," said Jane.
"What's wrong?" asked Dick.
"I have the flu."
"Well, I guess I'll have to study by myself today."
Every speaker gets a new paragraph.
Generally, punctuation goes with the quote and inside the quote marks (see the question mark). And you don't have to get fancy with using words like exclaimed (a exclamation mark will tell us the speaker exclaimed). In a 2-person dialogue, after you identify the speakers, you don't have to say "he said" or "she said" every time they speak. The new paragraphs will identify the speaker.
Ideally, the dialogue will move the action or thought along. Hopefully, the above sample demonstrate these concepts.
Dialogue makes the memoir seem “here and now” to the reader. It hooks the reader into what is happening to the characters. It pushes the story ahead. The goal of the author is to write a dialogue that is true to the main event, true to their perception of what was said. The dialogue makes the incident crystal clear. The words don’t have to be exact as long as the attitude is shown, the event is detailed enough.
The best way to make sure you get your dialogue "correct" is to 1) know how people normally talk and 2) know the people that you're trying to describe in the scene.
Assignments for Today:(short answer)
Look over the dialogue you overheard for today's class:
1. Is there a conflict in either one of the dialogues you transcribed yesterday? If there is a conflict, who is the Protagonist and who is the Antagonist in the dialogue? How do you know?
2. Make a list. Who are the people in your Memoir? Write 2-3 things about each person that is unique or interesting about their physical appearance or their relationship to you? Who is supporting you in your goals? Who is pushing against you in your goals?
Short Essay (at least a page, please read completely before asking questions)
Write a dialogue between the protagonist in this memoir (presumably you) and the antagonist(s) in this memoir. Show conflict in the dialogue and make sure the dialogue shows character traits of both you and the antagonist(s).
STEP 1: Sit with your eyes closed until you can visual the main protagonist and antagonist in your memoir. See where they’re standing in relation to each other (near? far?), how they hold their bodies, the expressions on their faces when they surprise each other on the walk.
STEP 2: When you can see these two people, and when you can hear their voices, write for ten minutes. Do not use any words outside of quotes at all. This includes even ‘he said’ or ‘she said.’ Just let their voices come through. Write the words as they say them—don’t correct their grammar for them, or go back to change anything you have written. Don’t cross out anything, don’t erase anything—just let it all ride and force them to deal with the consequences. Do not allow them to call each other by name.
STEP 3: When you have finished, sit back for a few minutes and cool off. Then read what you’ve read. Edit your piece. Make sure you have conflict in your dialogue. If there is no conflict for the two characters in a piece of dialogue, then the dialogue has no place in your story.
The conflict can be internal (he’s lying to her, she doesn’t like him) or external (a wall of water is sweeping down on the two of them, someone has stolen her purse or their car). But it has to be there. Dialogue illuminates character faster than any amount of exposition, but only if you give your characters something interesting to talk about, and something that moves your story forward. And that means conflict.
Remember that people breathe while speaking. Read your dialogue out loud, in your normal, conversational tone of voice. If you run out of air part of the way through a sentence, rework it. Add punctuation, break it up, rip out the flowery stuff, and don't write long paragraph speeches.
Avoid “talking heads.” Have characters do something while they speak (like in the above scene where the male character fiddles with his wedding ring).
STEP #4: In STEP #1-3, you wrote classic “talking heads.” So for STEP #2, you’re going to go back, take the exact dialogue you wrote, and fill in. Add setting, speech tags, thoughts, and anything else that will flesh out the scene you saw in your head. Read it and compare it to the dialogue above. Where are they located? How can you describe the area that they're having this dialogue? Think about last class and how you used description.
Once you are satisfied with your dialogue, make sure you print both pages out and that it gets signed by either me or the writing tutors. Bring it to class (along with your description from Lab Exercise 1) for tomorrow's class.
A final word about conflict—it isn’t always something bad that’s happening. It can be something as terrific as winning a million bucks in a lottery or falling in love or discovering your character is going to have a baby. However, conflict always portends change. And dialogue always gives you a window to see into the way that characters feel about that change, or at least the way they want each other to think they feel, which may not be the same thing.
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